Plugged my pioneer pl 550 into a sony preamp that does not have a phono input. Plugged into CD and it sounds airy and weak. Other components work fine.Ordered a new cartridge, do I need an older pream

Your receiver probably has no Phono input. You cannot plug the turntable into a CD input, for example. You will need an external preamp to use a turntable with this receiver.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Wot", but I assume you mean that the receiver doesn't have a phono input, as most receivers now a days don't. You will need a phono preamp. Cost is under $25.00. It provides the amplification to be able to use any high level(CD, DVD, AUX, etc) input as well as the RIAA equalization you need to decode the record correctly. For more information, please visit my website at audioserviceclinic.com. Thank you.

You need to hook it up to another analog input other than the phono input. The record player has a built in preamp, and the receiver's phono input has a separate preamp for non-amplified players. You cannot have the two hooked to each other.

You are doing nothing wrong at all. It's just that as you say it has no phono input. Which means the sockets you have will NOT amplify the signal. So you need to buy a magnetic cartridge pre-amp and once connected to the aux the weak signal will be at the normal level.

Let's figure out which hardware is failing. Connect the phono preamp to the CD or tuner input to see if it works there. It should. If it does, your receiver is at fault. Did the front panel controls get damaged?

How did the turntable fare in this accident? As a basic test of its ability to produce sound, hook it directly to the CD input and raise the volume slowly while playing an LP. If it's alive you'll hear a very weak, tinny sound, but I assume you know that or you wouldn't have a phono preamp in the first place and would probably be asking why the TT sounds so poor. :-)

Hello. As per the post before me, if you have a receiver with a Phono input(many receivers don't have one anymore) the output of a phono cartridge is around 30 millivolts, vs 300 millivolts for a CD(10 times the amount) or any other line level device. A Phono preamp, also has RIAA(recording engineering standards)Equalization that provides the proper equalization for a Phono cartridge. As per the other post, yes, it will sound very low, and unnatural sounding. If the input you are plugging the turntable input into, doesn't say Phono, you can purchase an inexpensive Phono preamp made just for this very issue. You can try Radio Shack, or find something of better quality on the Internet.

Regards,

Dave

Hi...
If the new receiver doesnt have a specific input in back labeled "phono" , You WILL need a preamp for the phono. Then plug the preamp into the AUX or other available input

Hi Big John

This is a nice reference series amp with a decent phono preamp stage. It is unusual to see a phono stage get damaged in this way.... but Murphy's law tells us "If it can be blown up, then someone will do it". I recommend that you do fix it. First up, perhaps check the settings for the preamp on the rear of the amp(from recollection). Be sure that you have it in moving magnet (mm) mode if you are using a MM cartridge.

Although its been a few years, My recollection is that there is a separate power supply for the phono preamp, with maybe even power regulators on on the actual preamp board. First check would be here to see if both DC rails are present for the phono Preamp stages. Most common failure here is heat stressed cracked/dry solder joints.

You need a good HiFi/Audio tech to have a look at it for you if the problems run deeper than DC supply for the preamp. Good luck. A FixYa rating is a great reward for my time to address your problem. Cheers

regards
robotek

No phono inputs?? You will need a phono to line level preamp to use aux input.

You need to connect most turntables to a PHONO input or buy a PHONO preamp. Many newer receivers do not have a PHONO input. The AUX port you are using would work fine for a device like a CD player, but turntables need to be amplified. You can buy an external Phono pre-amp from Radio Shack. I don't know anything about this site, but something like this device should work for you. http://www.phonopreamps.com/tc400pp.html